More close matches for Canadians on World Tour beach volleyball circuit

OTTAWA – Canadians Christian Redmann and Richard VanHuizen of Toronto lost two close matches on the FIVB beach volleyball World Tour circuit on Thursday in Myslowice, Poland while Julie Rodrigue of Quebec City and Kara Zakrzewski of Mississauga, Ont., were one win short of reaching the main draw at the women’s stop in Seoul.

In Poland, Redmann and VanHuizen earned a bye to the main draw after a strong season opening performance last weekend in Rome in which they reached the repechage for the round of 16.

On Thursday, the Canadian pair, ninth at the world championships last year and seeded 24th here, lost its opening round match to ninth-seeds Grzegorz Fijalek and Mariusz Prudel of Poland 17-21, 21-13, 15-12 in 58 minutes, the second longest match of the first round.

Redmann and VanHuizen then moved on to the repechage and lost to 25th seeds Karl Jaani and Rivo Vesik of Estonia 21-16, 28-26. The Canadians officially place 25th.

Canada’s three other entries were eliminated in qualification. Martin Reader of Comox, B.C., and Chaim Schalk of Red Deer, Alta., as well as Jesse Lelliott of Kelowna, B.C., and Ben Saxton of Calgary (on photo)won their opening qualifying matches before falling in the second round. National champions Josh Binstock and Matt Zbyszewski, both of Toronto, lost their opening match.

Meanwhile in Seoul, Rodrigue and Zakrzewski advanced to the second and final round of qualifying. They opened with a victory over Satoko Urata and Takemi Nishibori of Japan, ranked seven spots higher, 21-16, 21-18. In the second round however they were upset by Nai Han Kou and Hui Min Chang of Taipei 21-14, 21-15.

Jamie Broder of Victoria and Liz Cordonier of Vancouver and Anastasia Danilova and Kristina Valjas of Toronto lost their opening qualifying matches.

The next stop on the circuit for the men and women is a Grand Slam event June 7-14 in Moscow.